Ford Probe

From Autocade

Compact sports car on various Mazda Capella platforms, originally conceived to be Mustang III (how Ford would have explained away the Fox platform-based model is unclear). When information leaked out about the Mustang’s Japanese origins and front-wheel drive, fans revolted, and Ford rethought the project. The existing Mustang was refreshed, and the new car took the name of Ford’s series of show cars of the late 1970s and 1980s: Probe. The first generation, mechanically identical to the Mazda MX-6, was quite successful, but with a new Mustang in 1994, the second-generation model’s sales suffered. Probe was eventually deleted after the 1997 model year.